Westie Habits
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
If you are the owner of a westie or know of one, read on…
From day one Mitzi seemed to observe the people she was around. When a family member began to put their shoes on she would stop dead in her tracks, tilt her head to one side as if to say ‘what are you doing now? Are we going out?’
Something inside Mitzi seems to trigger an alarm. After a year or so Mitzi knew what time her dinner was going to made, when her daily walks would be and most importantly what time the postman would arrive…
If you forget to take her out for a walk at 4pm you certainly would know about it. Mitzi starts off around 3.45pm nudging you with her wet nose as if to say “don’t forget the walk at 4pm”. Next she lies across your feet, so if you move she will know you are going somewhere. After years of training we have now managed to get Mitzi to sit whilst her lead it being attached to her collar (whilst she is screeching in excitment at the same time).
It’s amazing how westies have this built in clock to know things are going to happen at a certain time. Each morning Mitzi waits from 10am – 11am at the front door just staring through the glass waiting for the arrival of the postman. If I said Mitzi wags her tail and greets the postman like a long lost friend that would be great – but also a lie. My parents had to have an external mail box fitted in order to save their mail from this innocent looking westie.
Should anyone press the doorbell or if a stranger walks past with a hat on all hell breaks loose! She barks and barks, then barks some more until that person has disappeared out of sight. Should we try to move her away from the window she doesn’t like it one bit, she will grab the nearest thing to her and shake it in anger! This is not acceptable behaviour at all and we know it.
Westies are stubborn little dogs. Many a time we have been walking with Mitzi and she will just sit down on the street as if to say “I’m tired now, if you want me to move then pick me up”. I’ve seen numerous westies behave like this, it is not acceptable as we are the pack leaders not the dogs! We’ve fallen for this ‘sit down’ maneuver many times when she was younger, but we are now wise to her little trick and will not give in to her again.